


Athan

by leannmanderson



Category: Game of Sultans (Video Game)
Genre: Character Background, Conspiracy, Contest Entry, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28634430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leannmanderson/pseuds/leannmanderson
Summary: How did Athan come to be the Sultana's lover?
Relationships: Athan/Sultan | Sultana (Game of Sultans)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Athan

Athan.

My full name is Athanasius, but Athan is what the Sultana calls me, and so Athan I am. After all, pleasing her keeps me out of a prison cell.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Greek in origin, I came to the Ottoman Empire seeking my fortune and found it when I became an arms teacher to Prince Selim. He was his father’s heir, but he was more interested in hunting and in women than in what I had to teach him. Still, being his arms teacher meant a position of power for me when he took the throne. His father was old. I was sure it wouldn’t be long.

I taught him how to fight with a sword, with a bow. I taught him strategy. I taught him how to choose his viziers. I taught him how to lead an army. But it was his younger sister, the oldest of the princesses, who was paying attention, both to my lessons and to me.

And oh, she was a lovely thing. I had never been in the harem. That wasn’t allowed. But I knew what the Sultan looked like, and I knew what Princess Akilah looked like, with the red undertones to her hair and her wide, intelligent grey eyes, and I knew that she must have taken after her mother.

I tried hard not to let her get to me, but she did, and oh, the guilt I felt when I took her to my bed. After all, I had just violated the trust of the Sultan. But the princess looked at me with love. She begged me to wed her. But I couldn’t.

Not with the plots going on. Karaman and Zaganos, intended to use Selim as a puppet Sultan and promised me the head of the military if I would support them. God, I wanted that position. And I wanted it more than I wanted her. I was selfish. Besides, wouldn’t she love me more if I were more powerful? Wouldn’t it make me more worthy of taking her as my wife? And with Selim as Sultan, and a new, more powerful position, perhaps I could take her as my wife with honor.

But then, during a hunt, Selim was badly injuried. Karaman and Zaganos were worried, as it looked like Selim might not make it, and the Sultan’s health was failing. And Akilah? She was at the Sultan’s side. As the storm raged, word flew through the palace. The Sultan had died, and he had named _Akilah_ his successor.

She immediately went to work to find out who was plotting against her and how her brother had died, how the fire had started. I was tasked with making his body disappear. Karaman and Zaganos turned on each other. I was captured returning to the scene of the crime. Akilah came and questioned me, personally.

“Athan, Athan, what did you do?”

I knelt in front of her, unable to look the new Sultana in the eyes. “Sultana, you have enemies. They plot against you and against the Ottoman Empire even as we speak. I do not know their names, but I know that they control Karaman and Zaganos. They controlled your brother. And it was Karaman and Zaganos who controlled me. They wanted to make your brother a puppet Sultan, to control the Empire themselves. They promised me that I would be in charge of the military, Sultana. And then they promised me…they promised me my heart’s desires.” How could I tell her that they’d all but promised me her?

Akilah’s eyes were on me. I dared not look at her, but I could feel it. “Take him to my rooms,” she said at last. “I will personally interrogate him further. I think he has more to say that he’ll be willing to admit under a different form of questioning.”

The guards picked me up and escorted me. The Sultana’s chambers? Why? What did she plan to do with me? I sat and waited for hours. I suppose she must have been questioning and passing judgement on Karaman and Zaganos.

And then, finally, she entered. I dropped to my knees and then went prostrate in front of her. “Sultana, I beg of you to show mercy upon your servant.”

“Get up, Athan.”

I did as I was told, and I was stunned when she kissed me. “What…?”

“Do you not remember when I begged you to marry me? Now I can order it.”

“I am not worthy of it.”

“I am Sultana now,” Akilah said. “I determine who is or is not worthy. I deem you worthy, but because you have betrayed me, you will remain under watch, in case you decide to do something so foolish ever again. Tell me, what is your heart’s desire that they promised you?”

“You,” I admitted. “My heart’s desire was to be in a position that would make me worthy of you. Your father would never have approved. I was too lowly. I am still too lowly.”

“I will make you the first of my husbands, Athan. As Sultana, I must produce children. But I will not kill myself in childbed, nor will I spend my entire reign there. Instead, I will expect all of my husbands to also sponsor children, just as women were sponsored into the harem by viziers. From these children will I choose my successor, and they will have an equal chance with those I personally give birth to. A new day is dawning in the Ottoman Empire, Athan, and we will only grow.”

I did not doubt her words. How could I? And she showed me such mercy. Such love, even now. How could I do anything but what she asked? And so, that night, I went to her bed, and we were wed the next day as she officially named me hers. Under the law, my very life was hers to do with as she pleased, and to please her, I will always seek.


End file.
